Category: Lumia 640XL

If you follow me on Twitter or know me personally, you know that I’m a big user of Fitbit and MyFitnessPal. In 2009 I weighed in at just under 300lbs while today I’m a healthy 195lbs and I credit my Fitbit (One and now a Flex) as well as MyFitnessPal as part of my success in losing the weight and keeping it off. That said, there are some out there who do not necessarily want to have a wearable device to track their activities let alone have another app they have to go to so they can log their food and caloric intake.

With the introduction of the Lumia 1520, Nokia introduced SensorCore, a sensor and software application built into certain Lumia devices that will allow you to track activities such as walking and running. Couple that with the free MSN Health & Fitness app for Windows Phone, you now have a way to keep track of your steps, runs, diet, and calories burned all in one app and you don’t have to wear any other devices other than your Lumia in your pocket – which is where it always is anyway, right? Setting up your Lumia to use SensorCore is easy and it automatically configures MSN Health & Fitness so you can get to tracking things straight away.

The recently announced Lumia 640 and Lumia 640XL have made their way to the Microsoft Store in the UK and are available for Pre-Order. In case you missed it, these are the two new Lumias that were announced at Mobile World Congress and are 5″ and 5.7″ mid-range Windows Phones respectively. The pricing is in line with what was expected. The Lumia 640 will be about $250 while the larger Lumia 640XL is equal to $325. Both can be pre-ordered now with a release date of April 28 being posted on the site.

AT&T has updated their smartphone section of their website to show that the all new Lumia 640XL is “coming soon” to the carrier. While there is no date associated with the update on their page, it is generally believed that the Lumia 640XL and the Lumia 640 will both be available around mid-April with pre-orders possibly happening as soon as this week. You might remember that AT&T will have the exclusive on the Lumia 640XL in the United States – at least for now – with T-Mobile and MetroPCS picking up the Lumia 640 along with AT&T.

With Mobile World Congress wrapped up for 2015, Microsoft has created and shared a quick video highlighting the big announcements from the company this year. The video is just over a minute long and available on the Microsoft Lumia channel on YouTube. You can watch it here after the break.

The big highlights from MWC 2015 for Microsoft circled around the all new Lumia 640, Lumia 640XL, more information shared about Windows 10 for Phones and Windows 10 as a whole while even the Surface Hub got a bit of attention as did Universal apps. While Microsoft clearly didn’t have a huge presence at Mobile World Congress this year, the announcements were important and I think gave a good indication of where Redmond is going to be focused in 2015.

For those who are anxious to pick up the Lumia 640 or the Lumia 640XL, you may have a few weeks of waiting if the German, UK and French Microsoft Stores is any indication. The online store has posted the availability of the Lumia 640 for pre-order but delivery is not until mid-April. While this is certainly more than has been posted on the US Microsoft Store, you can assume safely that the wait times will be similar.

One interesting observation though: Verizon was not mentioned at all as a US carrier who will have these new Lumia devices. AT&T will carry both the Lumia 640 and Lumia 640XL while T-Mobile and MetroPCS will carry the Lumia 640. It appears, at least for now, the Lumia 640XL will be exclusive to AT&T which, frankly, it should be given that AT&T has been a supporter of the platform. So you will have the US #2 and #3 carriers with these new budget friendly devices but not the #1 carrier in Verizon.

With the announcements of the Lumia 640 and Lumia 640XL this morning at Mobile World Congress, one of the first questions that came up was when or if we would see these in the US market. The answer came almost as quickly as the announcements themselves. AT&T has issued a Press Release stating that they will carry the Lumia 640 and will be the first US carrier to have the Lumia 640XL in their lineup. While pricing and release dates were not a part of the announcement, you can expect them to be here pretty soon given that Microsoft announced they are available this month.

As part of the launch announcements for the Lumia 640 and Lumia 640XL, Microsoft has released two new launch videos covering both devices. Both of the videos can be found after the break and both are quite dramatic, outlining the look and feel of the devices as well as the wide range of apps that come built into the device.